Herlings took the win in Latvia’s MXGP first race

Jeffrey Herlings was the winner of the first race of the MXGP in Kegums, Latvia, after a good recovery following a less happy start. The dutchman returned to take part in a fight with his teammate and world champion Antonio Cairoli, who wasn’t able to withstand the pace imposed by his teammate.

All set for the start of the first race of the MXGP. Jeffrey Herlings was the strongest man in yesterday’s qualifying with the best time ahead of Clement Desalle and his teammate and main opponent in the final accounts of the championship, Antonio Cairoli.

At the moment it is the dutch who leads the world championship, with 286 points, 23 more than Cairoli, and 74 of Desalle, precisely the trio that took the front positions yesterday.

Cairoli had a strong start with the holeshot but Romain Febvre took the lead with Cairoli right behind and Paulin Gautier and Jose Butron to closely follow the defending world champion, while Van Horebeek had an equally strong pace ahead of Herlings who followed in sixth.

However, Cairoli took the lead but, at this stage, it was the dutchman who had already won two places, overtaking Horebeek and Desalle, and with pace to continue to gain time ahead.

In the top ten, there were no major changes.

At twenty minutes and two laps from the end, here is the standings:

Without surprises, minutes later Herlings could reach the second place and repeated the fight already seen in some occasions this championship, with the KTM teammates fighting for the top of the race. The pace set by the #84 was so strong that he would even be able to make the fastest lap of the race so far, with 1:52.695s.

With nine laps already gone, only 1.5s divided the two riders. The ‘gap’ between Paulin (4th) and Desalle (5th) increased more each lap, while Tim Gajser climbed to 13th as Maxime Desprey emerged from the top 15 for the entry of Evgeny Bobryshev.

With seven minutes and two laps to go, Herlings was already leading and didn’t seem to want to slow down with the pace he had right from the start. Cairoli followed behind and didn’t seem to be able to prevent his teammate from getting away, and was already more than 2s behind. For his part, Gajer continued to advance positions and was at this time in 11th.

Already within the last two minutes and two laps to the end, was increasing the difference between the riders of KTM. Around four seconds divided the leader and vice-leader of the world championship, getting the idea that, for this first MXGP race, Cairoli couldn’t prevent his teammate from gaining an advantage.

At the last minute and two laps, the standings:

On the last lap the two frenchmen close to the front men, Febvre and Gautier, gave their best to take the third place for the podium but there were no changes at the end and it was Herlings who won, followed by Cairoli.